Port Vancouver port begins truck strike recovery

Containers are moving again at a more-normal volume after federal, provincial and port officials agreed four days ago to improve compensation for delivery drivers to end a six-week strike at Port Metro Vancouver, a port official said Friday.
Authorities said they would increase minimum starting pay for drivers, increase per trip payments and pay a fee if drivers have to wait 90 minutes or more at a terminal to pick up or drop off a box.
Truckers returned to work on Friday and truck throughput was more than 80 percent of normal, port spokesman John Parker-Jervis said in a voicemail. Truck transactions by midday were about double the highest numbers during the disruption, he said.
On March 20, the port announced that the volume of truck loadings and unloadings had increased to 40 percent of normal, it's highest level since the trucker protest began.
It will take this week and possibly longer to clear the backlog of containers from yards in the port's four container terminals, the port authority has said.
"Truck drivers, shippers and customers should expect longer than normal waits in the coming weeks as a result," Port Director Robin Silvester said in a statement Thursday.
Port Metro Vancouver was not shut down by the strike because 70 percent of its inbound and outbound container volume is moved by rail.
Some ocean carriers diverted cargo to ports in the Pacific Northwest to avoid delays.
The Port of Tacoma has picked up some extra cargo in recent weeks that normally would have been dropped in Vancouver, but actual figures on how many extra TEUs arrived won't be available until next month, spokeswoman Tara Mattina said. Most of the cargo is being trucked back up to the Vancouver area, she added.